to have you with us. >> thank you honchar man, and of course to the representative jackson and my home town representative smith, thank you for adding to the ranking member conyers as well as the members of the committee. i come to you today as many things come as an american, as an optimist, the grandson of an immigrant orphan from mexico who found opportunity in our great country, and as the mayor of the nation's seventh largest city, the community that looks like the texas and the america of tomorrow. immigration for all of us is more than a political issue. it is who we are as americans. from plymouth rock to ellis island and galveston to access to the sandy shores of florida and other rocky coast of california, immigrants have made this the greatest country in the world. today, however, our immigration system is badly broken. but there is hope. this hearing more importantly the bipartisan legislation that i believe can be enacted because of it shows that we are on the cusp of real progress. the president in a growing number of bi-partisan lawmakers have laid the framework for